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How to Care for Yourself When You're Feeling Down

No matter how naturally upbeat and enthusiastic we are about life, no matter how ready we are to seize the day and live our bliss, there will always be rough times now and then when we feel down and need to treat ourselves with a bit of care and respect until we’re feeling back to our usual selves.

Life can be stressful in all sorts of ways. Maybe you’ve been hit by a difficult financial situation, and have turned to Cigno loans, or maybe a loved one has fallen ill. Maybe you don’t even know why you’re feeling down, but just know that you are.

Here are some tips to help you properly care for yourself during these difficult times, so that you can heal up and get back on your feet.

Lower your expectations and demands for the time being

There’s a general rule that we tend to be harsher on ourselves than we do on other people, and often drive ourselves mercilessly to ruin, or exhaustion, while pursuing certain goals and objectives.

It’s not too hard to see why this happens — we are the only people we have control over, and because we are, well, ourselves, we become deeply agitated, and often angry, and even disgusted when we’re unable to perform to the high standard that we set for ourselves — or when the more mysterious, subconscious parts of our mind cry out for a break.

When you’re going through a difficult patch, it’s important to lower the expectations and demands you place on yourself. As long as you’re attending to the tasks that must be attended to — turning up to work, following your basic moral code, and paying the rent — let the rest slide for a while.

Feed yourself well and get plenty of sleep

Food and nutrition are at the core of good health, and especially when your mood is low, you don’t want to put yourself in a position where you’re starving yourself or becoming sleep deprived.

A melancholic or depressive episode is not the time to be following a rigid and stressful weight loss diet programme, or staying up late watching TV, and subsisting on only a few meagre hours of sleep.

Anything you can do to help to bring your mood up when you’re feeling down — even if just by a little bit — is to be appreciated and sought out.

Watching a comedy film that makes you laugh, playing with a puppy that makes your heart melt, or reading a book that you find exciting, are all ways of getting your head out of the dark space it’s ended up in, and allowing yourself to experience a few precious glimpses of sunlight.

Depending on what’s got you feeling down, these little boosts may help a little, or a lot, but in any event, they’ll help to some degree.